Man City's academy is still working well despite sale of Cole Palmer
The progress of Romeo Lavia is an example of City's academy working well
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By IAN LADYMAN
Published: 17:30 EST, 23 December 2024 | Updated: 17:30 EST, 23 December 2024
When Morgan Rogers signed for Aston Villa for £8million from Middlesbrough last January, there were a few voices suggesting they may have got themselves a player on the cheap.
Almost a year on, there is evidence to substantiate that. Villa continue to be upwardly mobile and Rogers, 22, is front and centre of their progress.
His performance as Villa beat Manchester City at the weekend was noticeable because he was once on City’s books. Another one who slipped through the champions’ net, they say. Some think this means City have been slack, caught sleeping on the job.
But that’s wrong. This is merely a good academy at work.
Cole Palmer was a mistake, for sure. No point debating that one any more. He left Manchester at the start of last season as a player with tons of potential. Were he still there, he’d be Pep Guardiola’s most important player.
But the margins are fine at elite level and that is what City wish their academy to produce. Not good players but elite ones, capable of winning a Treble and four Premier League titles on the spin. Capable of being part of a side who can hold teams with players like Mohamed Salah at bay. Capable of staring down Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard in a title race and coming out on top two seasons running.
Although they made a mistake in selling Cole Palmer, Man City's academy is working well
Morgan Rogers is impressing for Aston Villa but City were right in allowing him to leave
City made around £23m from the Romeo Lavia's development, showing how the system works
When City let Rogers go to Boro in 2023 and Romeo Lavia to Saints in summer 2022, they had to weigh all that up. Rogers had been out on loan at Blackpool and hadn’t done enough to start for City. As an attacker, Rogers had some of the world’s best players ahead of him in the queue.
Lavia, meanwhile, was a holding player at a club who had this year’s Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, still only 28, embedded in that position.
To chart Lavia’s progress is to see how it all works. City took him from Anderlecht as a 16-year-old and sold him to Southampton for £10m with a 20 per cent sell-on clause. When he moved to Chelsea a year later for £53m, City received £10m of it, taking their return to around £23m. That is £5m more than they paid to buy centre back and Treble winner Manuel Akanji.
This, in short, is how good academies and good clubs work. Grow your own when you can and buy them young from elsewhere when you can’t. Keep the best and move the rest on for profit.
Occasionally, you will make a mistake and sometimes a player will pop up to remind you that he could always play.
But that’s OK. It means the wheels of your system are turning the right way. City should be encouraged, not embarrassed.
Palmer and all his genius have succeeded in making City look a bit silly but he is the only one who has.